Wannajmi itha hawa (surah Najm: 1)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(53:1) By the star when it sets: *1

Wannajmi izaa hawaa

*1) In the original the word "an-najm"has been used. Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid and Sufyan Thauri opine that it implies the Pleides. Ibn Jarir and Zamakhshari have held this same interpretation as preferable, for in Arabic when the word an -najm is used absolutely it usually implies the Pleides. Suddi says that it implies Venus; and Abu `Ubaidah, the grammarian, holds that here the word an-najm has been used generically so as to express this idea: "When the day dawned, and the stars set." In view of the context we are of the opinion that this last interpretation is more preferable.